Steel's Online World

MediaStorm

2008-12-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

For my "last" post I thought I'd share one of my favorite multimedia websites, MediaStorm.org.

It's run by the Washington Post and it features multimedia pieces with high-quality photos, video and audio.

It's a good example of what kind of impact high-level work can have.

Producing for online versus traditional platforms

2008-12-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

Magnum's blog has yet another good analysis of the challenges of producing multimedia content for the web versus for TV or other platforms.

It's tough to produce high-end pieces that run well online due to bandwidth considerations.

So even if you have really good content, you still have to keep in mind where it will end up online and how well the viewer will actually be able to view it. If it runs slowly, chances are visitors to your website won't stick around to be impressed.

The importance of audio in slideshows

2008-12-04T13:33:00.001-08:00

Check out another article on Magnum Photos' blog about how important the audio is for a photo slideshow.

The fact that a photography agency would emphasize the importance of good sound to make the piece flow even further underscores its importance.

If you have the best photos in the world (which Magnum's photographers might have claim to) you still need a story in the audio for maximum impact.

Article on audio slideshows from the masters

2008-12-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

Magnum Photos, one of the premier photography agencies around, has an old article on audio slideshows on its blog.

I think it's interesting to read their perspective on what these slideshows can be utilized for. The artistry that can come from them is much more than your everyday narrated piece.

Credibility of political candidates

2008-12-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post this earlier in the semester, but here's a blog with a really long analysis of Barack Obama's credibility.

The journalists who run the blog are up-front about their agenda, which I think is important.

Personally, I doubt there are more than a handful (if that) of high-level politicians whose credibility couldn't thusly be questioned. But I thought this site was interesting for its approach.

I wonder how many people actually looked at it and/or were convinced.

Style and grammar in blogs

2008-12-01T11:18:00.000-08:00

A perk of blogs is that writers can address their readers in a more conversational style than in traditional media, and can provoke conversation.

With this more laid-back style, though, the issue of whether journalists' blogs should maintain the same journalistic standards as their traditional counterparts emerges.

Theoretically, if a journalist is expected to use good grammar and spelling in his or her everyday work, the same should apply to his or her more informal blog, right?

But examples abound of blogs with poor spelling, lazy proofreading and improper word usage.

Here's an example of a blogger from Relevantmagazine.com who didn't capitalize anything in a post and got castigated for it by commenters. Granted, Stephen Christian is a rockstar, not a journalist, but his blog appears under the same Relevantmagazine.com masthead as all the staff writers' do. Relevant, though one of my favorite publication websites, doesn't get good marks in this area as others use words like "catagory" and "are" instead of "our."

Even major publications like USA Today and yes, the Miami Herald have bloggers who have been known to slip in a few errors.

So what's the cause of this sloppiness? Is it that editors don't comb through the posts? Is it just general laziness on the part of the writers?

Do readers even notice or care?

The New York Times in skinny form

2008-12-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

A service the gym I work at offers that I've always thought valuable is offering members the New York Times Digest, an eight-page summary of each day's New York Times newspaper delivered via e-mail or fax for copying and distribution.

The Digest is printed on regular notebook-sized paper and includes articles from news, sports, editorial, business and weather, as well as the famed crossword puzzle.

In researching the Digest a bit more, apparently it's a subscription service that 400 corporations world-wide subscribe to, including even the U.S. Navy.

It reminds me of an e-mail newsletter except all the articles are reprinted in full.

I think this would be a great candidate for delivering to mobile devices, as it's short but fairly complete and would be less cumbersome than a full newspaper in digital form.

If the website listed the subscription price, I would say as is it's a really useful service. But since I fear it's probably quite expensive, maybe regular people should stick to the e-mail version, which I can't even figure out whether the Times offers or not.

The music market under blog influence

2008-12-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

A recent post on the music blog on Relevantmagazine.com brought up the state of the music industry, how there is so much music being distributed through means like MySpace that fragmentation of the market follows.

The author, Seth Hurd of Shine.fm, a Chicago Christian radio station, brings up intriguing statistics from his inside vantage point.

He also points out that traditional media outlets like Rolling Stone and MTV are playing less of a role in determining which songs and artists succeed, with blogs holding more sway in influencing listeners.

So how do you find out about new music?

Relevant Magazine's blogs

2008-12-01T07:34:00.000-08:00

Relevantmagazine.com has several featured blogs, including blogs by the magazine's founder, editors, interns and even guest blogs by prominent authors and lead singers of popular bands.

The music blog alone is worth checking out for its coverage of the music industry, Christian and otherwise.

The blogs are run by twenty-something Christians, as the magazine's mission statement reads, but all bring something unique to the table.

They all cover their areas of expertise well, though some aren't updated often enough to be a consistent source of news. When they do post, though (some update several times a week, but some have been dormant for a year), you can expect the writing to be insightful.

USA Today's Faith & Reason blog

2008-12-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

One of USAToday.com's featured bloggers is Cathy Lynn Grossman, a religion reporter for the paper. She runs a blog called Faith & Reason, where she covers touchy topics from the Ten Commandments in courts to "under God" in the Pledge, to the spirit of Christmas.

It seems like a good forum for discussion on really interesting issues like John Lennon's views, which may be reported on in other blogs but likely not in USA Today.

Commenters are generally thought-provoking yet civil, though as I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure whether the comments are moderated so that could be a reason for their cleanliness.

Grossman's blogroll on the right side of the page is diverse and gives voice to many parts of the country.

She does a pretty good job of keeping her own views fairly benign in her writing, calling things into question while letting her readers discuss the issues.

Obama pumping iron instead of worshiping

2008-11-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

According to a post in USA Today's Faith & Reason blog citing Politico, president-elect Obama has been hitting the gym the past several Sundays in lieu of going to church.

The post does a good job of linking not only to the original article but also some interesting outside sites, including a USA Today topic list on Rev. Jeremiah Wright and statistics on non-church-goers.

The topic, with the question raised at the end, started a respectful discussion on the comment board.

Whether that's because the blog's readers are level-headed, or because the comments are moderated is uncertain.

USAToday football blogs

2008-11-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

Sundays mean football and USAToday.com has two prominent football blogs, Game On and The Huddle, both of which are run by senior sports writers and cover chatter from internal and outside sources that may not otherwise be published.

Both add a different dimension to watching football, as the one updates scores and injury news on gameday, while the other covers college and pro football.

Both do a nice job of quickly summarizing news items from sources around the country, as well as pointing readers to stories in USA Today.

Newest Rhodes Scholar is a student-athlete

2008-11-23T10:44:00.000-08:00

Florida State safety Myron Rolle had a long weekend.

The Miami Herald has a story following Rolle throughout Friday and Saturday, from winning a Rhodes Scholarship in Alabama to playing in FSU's 37-3 trouncing of Maryland at College Park, Maryland.

It's a vivid telling of the days' events and relates Rolle's experiences as a football player and student. I have two major gripes, though:

The article never mentions the outcome of the game, let alone whether Rolle actually played (he did).
-and-
There was no video or multimedia outside of a single photo.

The article could have benefited greatly from a video of the scene of Rolle's police escort or at least a photo gallery. Maybe no cameras were allowed in the ceremonies, but photos there also would have helped.

And I understand the article was probably written for the front page (I haven't gotten a chance to look at the real paper), which means it's directed toward a more general audience, but to leave readers with Rolle arriving at the game leaves too many questions unanswered to feel any kind of closure at the end.

High school football highlights on MiamiHerald.com

2008-11-22T12:50:00.000-08:00

This year, the Miami Herald is partnering with Recruitflix.com to offer high school football video highlights online.

Check out the highlights from yesterday's Northwestern-Columbus playoff game.

The local newspaper is still one of the only places for parents and fans to get their high school football news, so this should be a valuable resource for the website.

Help determine Obama's agenda

2008-11-22T12:18:00.000-08:00

A recent Miami Herald article detailed Obama's plans to not only broadcast his weekly address on YouTube, but also to appoint the first-ever Chief Technology Officer.

The most intriguing part of his plans is the idea of running a website where citizens can vote on policy issues and bring up issues that should be considered.

An example of such a website is online now. The most votes (over 11,000 for the first-place option) have come in on what the CTO's priorities should be.

The website isn't run by the Obama campaign, rather a civic software company, but is an example of what the Obama administration could use to dialoge with the American people.

Bryan Pata update

2008-11-20T13:13:00.000-08:00

ESPN's Outside the Lines recently featured a story updating the Bryan Pata murder case from two years ago.

It's a tough story to watch but the production is well done and the interview is poignant.

The cuts to clips of Pata playing are in logical spots, and the camera stays on his mother at the right moments to capture her emotion.

If NPR can reinvent itself...

2008-11-18T19:40:00.000-08:00

The American Journalism Review recently ran a story about NPR's transition from radio-focused to online multimedia-focused. They're sending journalists through a five-week intensive training program to teach them skills for producing for the web.

NPR is just about the last media organization I would expect to "get it," but if they can realize the need for a shift toward new techniques, why aren't certain others quick to jump on board too?

New president, new media

2008-11-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

The Miami Herald recently featured a video story telling of President-elect Obama's plan to broadcast his weekly radio address on YouTube.

For the American public, this seems like a great idea as it helps him stay accountable and it allows the public to directly view his speeches. But for the traditional media, this could mean consumers who ordinarily get their presidential coverage in the newspapers or broadcast media would be able to get it free on YouTube.

Opinion articles vs. reader comments

2008-11-15T11:08:00.001-08:00

Opinion pages have been an important aspect of newspapers since the Hearst era. But now that articles are online and readers are given the chance to respond below the article, the question of the opinion's impact emerges.

In Israel Gutierrez's recent article on the Hurricanes' win over the Virginia Tech Hokies, readers lit him up on everything from changing his opinion earlier in the season to holding an SEC bias (and those are just the ones clean enough to note). One reader even directed fans to "fire israel gutierrez dot com," though it doesn't look like that website exists. I couldn't find a single comment saying anything positive about the article or the writer.

Which begs the question: what is an opinion writer's job? Is it to fit the prevailing opinion of the audience? Is it to offer his or her opinion, no matter how unpopular?

And if people read the writer's articles but disagree, is that still good for business?

I've been told two things about reader comments: 1) Don't pay attention to them, commenting is just a way for people to semi-anonymously post opinions they would never put their name behind, or 2) Read them since your readers are your reason for existing as a writer.

So which is it?

Still photo and audio project on the Frost Symphony Orchestra Violin section

2008-11-09T19:17:00.000-08:00

Check out this audio-photo slideshow I did on the violin section of Frost Symphony Orchestra. It's a rough cut but let me know what you think.

Journalists' blogs

2008-11-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

I've always found different journalists' blogs interesting, seeing what they choose to cover.

In the little-known case of mental_floss magazine (a witty intellectual's dream) writer Ethan Trex, his side project is a blog updated daily with pictures of fans in obscure professional athletes' jerseys, fittingly called Straight Cash Homey Dot Net.

Instead of offering a blog explaining how he comes up with articles, or for posting rumblings that aren't fit for publication yet, Trex decided to do something random that his readers (again, mostly sarcastic intellectuals) might enjoy.

From the amount of comments, I'd say he has a decent following though.

Yahoo's article viewer

2008-11-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

When I clicked on an article on the Yahoo! front page titled "Palin fires back at critics," I was expecting a long article. When I saw that it was only one browser page long, I was thinking it was a brief they'd expound upon later.

But the four-line article ended abruptly, so I was confused until I saw the small "Read full article" button on the bottom right. When you click, it expands the article all the way down the page so you can read to the end. Otherwise, the article takes up the first window and links to similar content are right below the truncated article.

I guess this is Yahoo's way of catering to the crowd who only wants to skim the first couple paragraphs of an article and move on.

If it's new (I don't go to Yahoo for news often so they could have added it 3 years ago for all I know), it's an interesting concession to scanners and really not too much of an inconvenience to readers who want the full article. We'll see how it pans out in the visitors' minds.

Amendment articles

2008-11-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

With the polls opening in less than a day, most people have in mind who they're going to vote for for president, if they vote at all. But there are other important races and issues to be decided, including six proposed amendments to the state constitution.

The Miami Herald has articles available online about each of the amendments, and Sunday ran a brief summary of each amendment. The six individual articles break down each amendment with voices of opposition and support, where applicable.

There is no multimedia coverage related to the amendments, though the only thing I think would add anything would be a "man on the street"-style video asking civilians what they
think.

More than your typical crossword

2008-11-02T13:37:00.001-08:00

For those who are incredibly bored and looking for a way to lower productivity at work, USAToday.com offers a litany of games in its arcade.

You can find anything from your expected daily crossword or Sudoku to free trials of intricate online games. My favorite I saw is one called "Jammed Again," a mind game testing your ability to escape various maze-like traffic jams.

Now, this isn't online journalism per se, but when you're weary of reading 283rd election article this week, maybe it's a good feature for a site like this one to have.

USAToday.com photo galleries

2008-11-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

The photos in USA Today are noted for being top-quality, so the photo galleries its website offers should match in presentation.

Links to the most recent photo galleries are found on the home page requiring a slight scroll down from the main window view.

Unfortunately, there is no link to a photo gallery section, but the individual galleries, including a daily "The day in pictures" gallery and other often-updated galleries are linked to.

Navigation through the Flash interface is pretty seamless, with left and right buttons alongside each photo's brief description.

There is even a reader-submitted gallery of cars, which includes hand-picked pictures that look like they easily could have been professionally shot.

A separate page with links to all the recent galleries would be useful, especially since links only remain on the home page for a day, but otherwise I enjoy the website's presentation of photos.

Guess I won't be going to USAToday.com for my Miami Hurricanes football coverage...

2008-11-02T12:15:00.000-08:00

Not that a national publication like USA Today should be all over every major college football team, but the paper's website offers only one broken link to a story on yesterday's Miami-Virginia football game.

This highlights the difficulties of running a massive website like this. Keeping thousands of links active daily is a heady job, and mistakes do happen. But in cases like this, they better be fixed quickly lest the technical issues anger fickle readers into not returning.

USA Today redeems itself a little, however, with an article by Tim Reynolds about the Hurricanes' return to bowl eligibility, which vividly details the final drive in regulation Saturday.

Still, if I was a Canes fan looking through the site's already convoluted list of game recaps from Saturday and saw this non-working link, I probably wouldn't be too relieved to have to dig to find anything else Miami-related.

USAToday.com's interactive election coverage

2008-11-02T11:08:00.000-08:00

USAToday.com features a small election section nestled under the main story on the home page.

Included are a presidential poll tracker, electoral vote tracker, campaign finance tracker, campaign ad tracker and debate tracker.

Although most of these special features are Flash-driven interfaces similar to what can be found on countless other media websites, two in particluar are worth noting.

The campaign finance tracker lets you see how much each candidate (or party, or independent committee) has raised, and where the money is coming from by state, amount of donation, and occupation sector of donor. There is also an in-depth explanation of accounting rules and donation guidelines at the bottom. This page is pretty interesting and shows everything in a clear interface.

Another nice feature is the campaign ad tracker. It lets you watch the ad if it's a TV spot, and breaks down the content of the ad, including any rebuttals from the other side. It also links to more USA Today coverage of the ad and offers a poll on how accurate and effective readers think the ad is. I like this coverage, alth0ugh it needs to be updated more often as it's missing several from the last month.

Videos on USAToday.com

2008-10-31T23:24:00.000-07:00

USAToday.com's featured videos appear high up on the homepage and have their own section.

The videos are mostly Associated Press or other syndication service productions, but this allows for many videos to be available. The variety is impressive. Some are better than 0thers, but there are many for various subjects, updated relatively regularly.

The quality is typically high, with nice production and sound. My favorite I saw was one on dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

I think the video section adds relevance to the site, and as they pump out more, it'll become an indispensable part of the USA Today draw.

USA Today headlines

2008-10-31T10:54:00.000-07:00

Most of the headlines on USAToday.com seem to quickly and clearly describe the stories they link to. Once you click on the stories, some headlines are slightly or significantly different than the ones on the homepage.

One such headline on the main page is "McCain, Obama eye Midwest," while the actual article headline is "Candidates campaign in Midwest days before election." I would say the article headline more clearly describes the story, but the one on the homepage may be better for search engine optimization, which should be the other way around.

Most of the headlines are plain but descriptive.

The best one I saw was "Rifle maker bounces boss who supports Obama," which is the same on the homepage and story page. Or, if you prefer the familiar cheesy newspaper headlines, try "Tricks and treats await unsuspecting travelers," Which links to "Trick or treat: Numbskull frights, impish delights await the unsuspecting." Not well optimized but I suppose it's clever.

Overall, I'd say the headlines are effective but could be better suited for SEO (and for those of us with low cheesiness tolerances...).

Halloween costume search

2008-10-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

I'll cut to the chase: most newspapers seem to be no help in getting an idea of what to dress up as for Halloween.

Five days from the silly holiday, I'm in desparate need of a costume. I am required to wear a costume to my job, and I am low on ideas and admittedly cheap, which hurts the cause.

So I took to the newspaper websites, starting as far away from Miami as possible as I don't want to be the 98th Palin impersonator you see Friday (not to mention I'm not sure the gym's policy on cross-dressing, or mine for that matter.)

No luck searching my hometown paper, The (central Illinois) Pantagraph, nor the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, LA Times, or Chicago Tribune. The New York Times had a couple year-old or more blog posts that I didn't want to touch, and even the Miami Herald didn't tell me what everybody else in the Grove will be wearing. I was getting a little frustrated.

Then, the thought occurred to me that I should try a crazy city on the other coast: Seattle. Of course, my final idea was probably my best as the Seattle Times had an article with some of this year's popular costume ideas. Ironically it's an Associated Press article out of New York, so any of the other papers could've picked it up.

This one wasn't particularly helpful, either, offering only a few hot ideas and no real original ones.

But I guess the search wasn't fruitless. I did get the idea in looking at the LA Times that I could go as a crazy Oakland Raiders fan since I'm a huge Raiders fan anyway. And I bet I'll be the only one around here in silver and black since it's the wrong coast.

I'm extremely disappointed in the newspapers once again. I know holiday articles are played-out and I wouldn't want to write one either, but for those of us feeling that "oh crap, Halloween's this Friday" pressure, don't make us go elsewhere to get ideas. I mean, I avoid newspapers for just about everything else so why buck the trend I guess?

Politico's swing state map

2008-10-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Check out Politico.com's interactive map of the swing states in the race for the presidency.

It labels each state as solidly for one candidate, leaning, or one candidate leading, based on Real Clear Politics polling.

Each of the swing states where one candidate is currently leading has a short summary of historical trends and how the candidates are vying for the state.

It's a pretty useful tool, presented in a straightforward interface. My only criticism would be that the distinction between "leaning" and "leading" is never explained.

Miami Herald special reports

2008-10-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

The Miami Herald occasionally runs special reports, like this recent one on shady lending practices and how borrowers are paying for it.

The package features a three-part chunked article, videos, a photo slideshow, graphics and a discussion forum for readers, presented in a Flash interface.

Special reports like this are a good feature for newspapers trying to compete with multimedia engines like CNN, but take a huge amount of time and other resources.

Unfortunately, this means they only appear once every few months. I remember seeing this one over the summer, and it's still the most recent one posted. With more effort exerted in covering the election, maybe these special packages get pushed aside.

But if newspapers wish to continue to compete, they'd better crank out more pieces like this one or they'll quickly find their website traffic leaving in favor of those outlets who do.

Google Trends

2008-10-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

The guest speakers Tuesday showed us Google Trends, so I thought I'd check it out some more.

It's a Google search tool that allows you to see what people search on Google. (If that's not redundant.) It also shows you the recent hot searches.

This is the part I'm kinda intrigued by, since as a journalist you could use it to see what potential readers care about. If only you could find out demographic information, then you could really figure out what your readers specifically are wanting to know.

Wait, that's all a little too big brother-y... nevermind.

Obama's response to bad information

2008-10-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

This election, just as any other, is riddled with negative advertising, biased analysis, even some untrue reports.

The Obama campaign has been running an anti-smear website for some time, called FightTheSmears.com.

With the campaign's countless millions it can't seem to spend quickly enough, this may be its smartest investment.

Still, repudiating claims saying they lack evidence, while presenting little or no evidence to the contrary isn't exactly trustworthy either. The site does offer some good evidence in certain instances by citing credible news outlets, but any smart citizen would realize the site still requires fact checking.

I wonder if this is the first campaign-financed anti-smear website. I haven't heard anything about John McCain having anything similar, but that doesn't mean he doesn't. Does anybody know if he has a similar site too?

WiMax

2008-10-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

WiMax, the innovative mobile broadband service we've been hearing about for years, is apparently coming soon in mass quantities, according to an article in USAToday.

The article appears with one photo and two sidebars online, with the usual links to related stories in the "jump" in the middle of the text. Also, the in-text links to the stock prices of each company mentioned were kind of cool and might be useful to a reader who just clicked on the story because they own stock in Sprint, for example.

The first sidebar contains a complete mini-story about WiMax's debut in Baltimore. Although the main article is already quite long on its own, the separate shorter article adds a different, relevant perspective. I would almost rather just read the sidebar article though since the main article is so long and the sidebar shows quickly how it's working in a real city.

I really like the second sidebar, which gives in layman's terms how the technology works. The text in each bullet could be a little shorter, but it gives a good overview of what it is.

I'm glad they didn't decide to put in a video, because it would probably be boring and the article doesn't really need one. I feel like they could have cut about 500 words from the article and it would have been less boring and no less informative.

God on YouTube?

2008-10-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

Time recently ran a story on religious groups using YouTube as an evangelistic tool.

I'm always interested to see articles on these newfangled innovations, written by people who remember when people actually read Time, the magazine. (No, I don't know who David Van Biema is, I'm just assuming.)

It's presented pretty well, with one video on on each page and a short description. Eight major religions or denominations are represented.

The funniest one has to be a parody of "Baby Got Back" called "Baby Got Book."

AJC's election guide

2008-10-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

One of the sections that stuck out on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's website is the Election Guide.

It features a bunch of interactive features, including a continuous countdown timer until election day, a link to Politico.com's top stories, and a Twitter feed.

The coolest feature, though, has to be the Georgia Voter Guide. You enter basic address information and it generates a sample ballot for where you live. I would love that feature around here, so I could see what the issues and races are that I can vote on.

Another useful feature is the area at the bottom with election resources like factcheck.org and a political donation tracker.

The articles included are pretty well organized, but the section could use more videos and photos.

There's a link to the section and a couple top stories on the home page, but the link to the section page is on the bottom of the page and I think it could use to be farther up given the importance of the elections.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

2008-10-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about Christmas plans (already, I'm ashamed to say) and thinking about the conference I might be going to in Atlanta over New Year's and I thought about the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta metro's major newspaper, for some reason.

So I went on ajc.com since I don't think I've ever been there.

The website looks like a lot of different newspapers' sites, even a little like The Miami Herald's previous design.

The home page is organized with major stories on the top left two-thirds, with ads on the right and section headings along the top banner.

A small strip of featured interactive human-interest stories follows, then videos and entertainment. On the bottom half of the page, there are about 20 smaller sections with anything from an election guide to what's for dinner to a holiday guide.

There is a lot of variety on the home page, to me it's just a little difficult to find quickly. There is also a lot of good, unique content featured, a couple of which I'll break down in subsequent posts. But again, nobody's going to read it if it's impossible to find.

Photos and videos feature prominently on the upper portion of the page but in the lower bulleted lists, at least a small photo for each would break up a full screen of text ad explain each division easily.

Another example of, I like the content but feel like it could be presented more powerfully.

Kinda like Atlanta. Nice people, just not my kind of town.

HMMagazine.com

2008-10-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

HM Magazine is part of a select number of Christian music magazines that cover more than just Christian music.

Confusing, maybe. But the magazine's site offers not just the Christian music reviews you'd expect, but also mainstream music reviews and interviews, mainstream movie reviews and more. The interviews are especially noteworthy, as they're conducted in a trademark witty manner that seems to get artists to loosen up and share some really insightful stuff. In fact, I enjoy the non-Christian artist interviews probably the most since it's a regular practice to find out their views on Jesus, something you won't get in Rolling Stone.

The Internet exclusives are mostly news updates between magazine releases but they do offer some fresh content on an intermittent basis. Physical magazine sales are clearly the priority but the online version offers enough content to be worthwhile even to non-subscribers without lessening the value of buying the handheld version.

The only major criticism I would offer is that the website was evidently designed for a minimized browser window format, as the content is squeezed into a column about half the maximized screen. The column is the size of a YouTube embedded video, which makes for a clean look when there are videos on the page, but since there aren't many, elsewhere it just feels like a small screen.

The ads are small and there aren't too many of them , probably since it's not a heavy traffic site.

I enjoy HM's website but probably more for the content than for the presentation. A few minor fixes could greatly improve its look.

Twitter example

2008-10-14T22:23:00.000-07:00

A cool Twitter feed I found recently was from Cornerstone Christian Music Festival last year. I wasn't aware of it at the time but it seems like it was a good way to keep up-to-date with the happenings at the festival, as well as to see the coverage updates.

I wasn't able to make it this year so it was good to see all the updates and keep track of the coverage.

New social networking blog

2008-10-13T11:18:00.000-07:00

The Herald now has a blog about social networking etiquette in the corporate world. Intersting, if from a clearly older perspective.

Miami on a budget, Central Illinois style

2008-10-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

My hometown newspaper, The Pantagraph, has an article on how to visit Miami without spending a fortune. Now to get all my friends to read it...

Different way of looking at MLB's postseason

2008-10-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

USAToday.com is featuring a look at the "new Mr. October" using interactive graphics and databases, as well as typical articles. A bit overwhelming but cutting-edge.

Chicago's economy, in pictures

2008-10-12T13:30:00.001-07:00

Article on the economic climate in Chicago in the Tribune, presented powerfully in a gallery of photos and short interviews.

Interesting advertising blog

2008-10-12T13:16:00.001-07:00

Check out this blog on internet advertising a client at the gym I work at runs. Goes with our discussion of Google search terms.

ESPN covers cars, and well?!

2008-10-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

Good article of the greenest cars at the Paris Auto Show. Quick, concise summaries, good pictures, smooth transitions from one to the next.

Food safety inspectors

2008-10-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

*First of five Twitter-style (<=140 characters) posts, or until I get sick of writing like a text message.*

An article in on the Chicago Tribune homepage details food safety inspections. Good use of a database and chunking; could use more photos.

Extensive election article

2008-10-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

The Miami Herald recently sent Beth Reinhard to cover the election battleground along I-4 for several days. The substantial article, which is part investigative and part human interest, is presented online alongside a photo gallery and a short video.

Let's start with the positive, the video. It does a good job of showing all the small communities mentioned, with Google Maps transitions into each segment. Seeing and hearing the people shows their emotion and passion about the subject better than words can portray.

That being said, however, the video is extensive enough that it almost renders the print article useless. It presents a few additional points of view and shows what people are feeling better than the article can, though it does a decent job. If the video had a few of the facts the article contains, you wouldn't even have to bother reading the article.

That's the interesting balance that exists when newspapers provide video content: yes, an article is still necessary for the physical newspaper, but if the video contains everything the story needs and does a better job portraying the emotion involved, why wouldn't you devote all your resources to the more powerful storytelling means?

Unfortunately for the time being, that's not possible since you still have to put out a paper copy and videos and paper don't get along (yet).

But maybe instead of linking to the story online, the Herald could link to the video for their e-newsletter subscribers or something like that? Maybe that way they could emphasize the power of the video without diminishing the necessity of the print article.

Oh, and as an afterthought (which is what it happens to be), the photo "gallery" containing two images isn't really necessary. In my opinion, if you have two photos you might as well space them out throughout the story instead of having a slideshow at the top of the page. That might break up the lengthy text anyway.

The Miami Herald's chef-for-a-week

2008-10-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

The narrative form is one being less often used in the newspaper world, but in certain instances like this article detailing Evan Benn's experience at a high-end restaurant, it can be an effective way of presenting a story.

Benn tells of how he spent a week at Azul learning tips from the restaurant's chef. He tells of his pains and trials in the first person, another rare form for newspapers, though this story appears in the "Living" section so it's more fitting.

The article is accompanied online by a video and photo slideshow of his efforts. The video is a good addition to the story as it gives a real taste for what life is like behind the counter. It's pretty well-produced for an in-house production as well.

The slideshow is another good addition because it highlights some of the more interesting moments in the story in an easily relatable way.

I also like the sidebar telling some take-home tips for readers to apply in their own kitchens.

Overall, the first person isn't the best way to tell the news but in this case it's an effective story form to tell about a reporter himself being the "news," and the multimedia aspects included offer an invaluable look into the experiment.

Michael J. Fox feature

2008-10-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

As mentioned previously, USAToday.com has a featured video section on its website. One that stuck out to me today was one on Michael J. Fox speaking about Parkinson's research.

I only clicked on the story to see his speech since I figured it'd be powerful. It certainly was, whether you agree with his message or not. In this case, the video was really the only way to convey the emotion of the event.

I think the editors made the right call going with a video feature rather than a more text-based story since it only required a short piece and text would lose the gravity of his speech.

One downside is you have to scan through a bunch of videos on the election that are of dubious necessity to even notice the powerful video, so maybe this is a case where less would be more?

Embarrassing error

2008-10-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

Getting the scores from the big games practically immediately is undoubtedly one of the benefits of online, but the rush to post the news as quickly as possible can lead to errors.

The USAToday.com front page has the Cubs-Dodgers score mistakenly listed as 8-2, while it was actually 7-2. This isn't a huge gaffe but especially for those of us who weren't going to the home page for the score and just happened to notice it, it's important since we might not bother to click on the story where the score is correctly listed.

It's also over an hour after the game ended, and if someone hasn't noticed the error by now that brings up major questions over the paper's online practices.

What if the incorrect digit was in the Dow Jones price? If they'd listed it down 877 the other day rather than 777, that might be a big deal in trading, especially if they didn't notice it for an extended period of time.

I've written baseball scores before. It's pretty simple to get the numbers right.

You check them twice.

I expect better from a major news source like USA Today.

Photos from UM Pro Day

2008-09-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

So my digital camera is on the fritz so I'm uploading some old pictures, but I think they're good for discussion purposes anyway.

They're from this spring's UM Pro Timing Day where players leaving school (either graduating or leaving early) showcase their skills in drills in front of NFL scouts.

The shoot was pretty difficult because the press was stationed about 100 yards from where the action was taking place on the Greentree practice fields.

To make matters worse, it was a cloudless, sunny day so lighting on all the shots was problematic. In fact, I learned the hard way that picking the right exposure settings, even on a point-and-shoot like mine is important, probably even more than if I had been working with professional-level equipment.

These are all of Calais Campbell, by the way, who was taken in the second round of the NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals. He was the featured athlete that day since Kenny Phillips decided his results from NFL Combine workouts were good enough.

I think I took around 80 shots, mostly fidgeting with settings on exposure length and some with rapid shot to reduce blur and get the lighting right.

As I alluded to earlier, I had to scrap about half of them because the lighting just wasn't going to work in print. I'll share one of those at the end. Definitely a hard learning experience since a couple really nice shots were ruined due to the fact that they were way too bright.

As you can see from the first shot to this one on the left, I started to realize which settings were best and began to get better color, which you can see in even the color of the grass.

I think the zoom worked well without too much distortion, especially considering the resolution for which I was working.

Anyway, here's two more, the former being one of the better I took, and the latter being one I am not too proud of. I think I got a few usable shots, and the article, which has suffered from a website redesign, turned out decent.

Maybe's there a debate tonight... maybe not...

2008-09-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

There were some interesting stories floating around earlier today when we were waiting to hear whether the debate was on for tonight. Aside from the fact it's ridiculous to me that we didn't hear until mid-afternoon whether the first debate of the season was even going to happen after months of planning, but there were a few varied sources on the web.

CNN.com, usually my first stop, had a link at about noon to watch live coverage of debating whether the actual debate would go on. The Miami Herald had a story updated early in the morning questioning it but didn't have news that it's on until mid-afternoon. The first place I saw the news was on Time.com, which incidentally has a partnership with CNN.

I guess I was a little caught off guard by the fact there was a lot of speculation and not much information out there, especially (selfishly) since I wanted to know my evening plans. I guess I should learn my lesson and not rely on immediate political campaign trail news since it's all about playing favorites anyway. Or just TiVo the thing like I'm doing now once I realized my roommate got one...

My rewrite of bailout story

2008-09-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here's how I might have opened the story, in its final version:

---

President Bush again pressed for quick action Monday on a $700 billion government bailout plan for Wall Street, but Congressional negotiations continue as key Democrats urged a more deliberate approach.

Amidst the most dramatic financial bailout since the Great Depression, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down more than 370 points Monday.

Bush issued a statement at the White House saying "the whole world is watching" how the U.S. government addresses the continuing turmoil in the worldwide financial markets, as investors await more details about the government's plan to buy banks' mortgage debt.

Monday, some key congressional Democrats called for a more deliberative approach than that favored by Bush.

While Congress has been cooperating with the plan, many lawmakers insisted that any rescue include more government accountability, aid troubled homeowners and prevent Wall Street executives at taxpayer-aided firms from reaping generous payouts.

...

A few minor changes and a couple re-orderings but overall they had an effective first few graphs.

Bailout story recap

2008-09-22T21:04:00.001-07:00

Apparently the USA Today people thought one major update of the story I've been following throughout the day was enough. Now, this wasn't really breaking news but it was a developing story. Maybe they figured minor updates wouldn't serve them too well as mostly people would read the story once and move on and not check back.

But what about those readers reading after 1:30 p.m., when they last updated the story? There are little things that could have easily been updated, like the statement in the second line about how the Dow Jones was down 200 points at midday. Unless I'm reading that at midday, I want to know how it closed, more importantly.

Another, if minor, update it could have used is to fix where it says at the bottom "Roger Yu, Associated PRess" in the list of contributors. Nit picky I know.

Overall, I think the major update approach served this story well since major news broke Monday, changing the primarily important factors without meriting an entirely new story. Still, I would have liked a few more updates throughout the day to add developments to the story and keep it fresh. I feel like since they last updated the story at 1:30 this afternoon the readers are left with a story that's almost old news by the early evening.

I'll write how I would have begun the story in my next post.

(final version) Bush presses for quick action on $700B bailout bill

2008-09-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the final version.

Bush presses for quick action on $700B bailout bill
By Sue Kirchhoff, Barbara Hagenbaugh and Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

President Bush again pressed for quick action Monday on a $700 billion government bailout plan for Wall Street, but some key Democrats urged a more deliberate approach as negotiations continue.

The uncertainty helped send the Dow Jones industrial average down almost 200 points at mid-day.

Bush issued a statement at the White House saying "the whole world is watching" how the U.S. government addresses the continuing turmoil in the worldwide financial markets, as investors await more details about the government's plan to buy banks' mortgage debt.

Anxious lawmakers have vowed cooperation but insisted that any rescue include more government accountability, aid troubled homeowners and prevent Wall Street executives at taxpayer-aided firms from reaping generous payouts.

Monday, some leading congressional Democrats were calling for a more deliberative approach than that favored by Bush.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd voiced confidence in Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, saying that "we've got the right man" to deal with the problem that has roiled not only Wall Street but international markets as well. But his counterpart in the House, Rep. Barney Frank, accused Paulson of pushing Congress to move too hastily.

Dodd, D-Conn., said Monday morning that there will be a division of thought in Congress about how best to proceed on a $700 billion bill the Bush administration is seeking from lawmakers to buy up bad mortgage loans that have been weighing down financial companies since they became engulfed in a severe credit crisis 14 months ago.

Dodd, interviewed on CBS's The Early Show, said many members of Congress believe a legislative relief package also should be tailored to protect taxpayers in the best way possible. He said they should be "first in line" to get money back once conditions in the industry stabilize and recover.

Under a proposal outlined Monday by Dodd, a draft of which was obtained Monday by the Associated Press:

• Judges could rewrite mortgages to lower bankrupt homeowners' monthly payments.

• Companies that unloaded their bad assets on the government in the massive rescue would have to limit their executives' pay packages and agree to revoke any bonuses awarded based on bogus claims.

• The government would have broad power to buy up virtually any kind of bad asset, including credit card debt and car loans, from any financial institution in the U.S. or abroad in order to stabilize markets. But it would end the program at the end of next year, instead of creating the two-year-long initiative that the Bush administration has sought.

• An emergency board would be established to keep an eye on the program with two congressional appointees, and a special inspector general appointed by the president.

Also Monday, finance officials from the globe's major economic powers said they welcomed the steps taken to stem the crisis. The Group of Seven, made up the the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada, issued a statement saying it was "ready to take whatever actions may be necessary, individually and collectively, to ensure the stability of the international financial system."

On Sunday, Paulson made the rounds of the major TV news programs to make the case that hisprogram to buy up toxic mortgage securities is vital to keep financial markets functioning and prevent a collapse.

"The credit markets are still very fragile right now and frozen," Paulson told NBC's Meet the Press. "We need to deal with this and deal with it quickly."

SHAKE-UP CONTINUES:Goldman, Morgan to become bank holding companies

Acknowledging that taxpayers and some members of Congress are dubious — and upset — about rescuing wealthy firms that made risky business bets, Paulson said there is simply no other path given worldwide carnage in financial markets.

"It pains me tremendously to have the American taxpayer put in this position, but it is better than the alternative," Paulson said. He and President Bush are urging Congress to pass a plan by the end of this week.

If approved, the government's commitments related to the credit crunch would be about $1.6 trillion. At $700 billion, the latest pledge would approach the more than $750 billion that's been spent for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and fighting terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001.

On Capitol Hill, top lawmakers from both parties said they understand the enormous stakes and want to act this week. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Congress would "not simply hand over a $700 billion blank check to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome," adding that the "party is over for the Bush administration's anything-goes, failed economic policies."

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., whose support is pivotal as he's the senior Republican on the Banking Committee, said he is "unconvinced that Treasury's proposal strikes a balance between the interests of the taxpayer and the economy."

A list of changes

Frank gave Treasury a list of changes he wants in any bailout bill: limits on executive compensation at firms aided by the government; regular reports by Treasury, including audits by Congress' Government Accountability Office; and more intense federal efforts to help homeowners prevent foreclosure.

The White House plan would give Treasury sweeping power to issue up to $700 billion in bonds to fund the purchase of residential and commercial loans that have gone bad, either in the form of mortgage-backed securities or regular loans.

Treasury officials, who would report periodically on their holdings, could buy other assets if necessary to stabilize financial markets. The program, to be overseen by private asset managers, would run for two years, covering loans made before Sept. 17. To qualify, financial institutions would have to have "significant" U.S. operations, though Treasury and the Federal Reserve could widen the program. Congress would increase the federal debt limit by $700 billion to $11.3 trillion.

Paulson said on ABC's This Week that the White House will push to include foreign firms in the plan. "If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution," he said. "The key here is about protecting the system."

Dodd said lawmakers want to improve the legislation, not derail it. He said a briefing by Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke outlining the potential devastation from a financial-sector meltdown was so grim that he "had to go back almost to the reactions I had to the 9/11" attacks to describe his state of alarm.

The plan follows a series of government efforts over the past year that failed to stabilize credit markets. Spooked investors last week pulled an estimated $200 billion from money market funds, sent stock markets gyrating and forced central banks to pump in hundreds of billions of dollars to keep credit flowing.

In another sign that troubles in financial markets are far from over, the Fed late Sunday announced that it had approved the applications of investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies — pending a five-day waiting period. The change gives the firms more power to bolster their financial bottom lines by raising deposits. It will also allow them to borrow directly from the Fed's discount window as commercial banks can.

Paulson's solution is for the government to buy up all of the toxic mortgages and mortgage-backed securities at the heart of the credit crisis. Banks cannot easily sell them because their values are dropping as housing prices fall and mortgage delinquencies rise. They've written down the value of those securities by billions of dollars, which has shrunk their capital and the amount available to lend.

The credit squeeze has already spawned 12 bank failures this year, including one on Friday in West Virginia. It has made financial firms wary of lending to one another for fear they won't get paid back and made them tighten lending standards for businesses and consumers alike.

'Fearful and unconvinced'

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Sunday he would work for the plan. But a number of GOP lawmakers were skeptical about the huge price tag and enormous expansion of federal authority, especially after Treasury's recent takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Fed's emergency $85 billion loan to struggling insurance behemoth American International Group.

"I'm skeptical, fearful and unconvinced," says Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who fears the nation is moving toward European-style socialism. "Having said that, it may be the most important vote I cast in my congressional career, so I continue to keep an open mind about the subject … study it, think about it and pray about it."

Economists said decisive action is needed — and well overdue. "They let the crisis go on for too long. They fiddled around with these liquidity programs" that let investment banks borrow money at low rates, said Brian Bethune, chief U.S. economist of Global Insight. "The bottom line is that it has not been enough."

Yet analysts disagree over whether even $700 billion is sufficient and whether the plan will inflict long-term damage on the economy. Bethune says the funding should be adequate. He estimates the face value of the mortgage-backed securities is $1.25 trillion, of which banks already have written off about $500 billion, leaving about $800 billion.

But he says they will likely write down an additional $100 billion to $200 billion: "I think ($700 billion) seems reasonable in terms of the total number, and it's more than what I expected."

The distressed assets are now selling on average for about 40 cents on the dollar, with even viable securities getting sharp markdowns. The government, he says, will likely pay more than that but less than the securities' actual worth if they were held to maturity — perhaps about 60 cents on the dollar.

Several months may be required to fund the plan and buy the securities, but the announcement itself could calm spooked markets, letting banks attract new investment even before they unload the bad debt. In fact, it could boost the value of the securities, causing some banks not to sell and cutting the bailout's cost, Bethune says. "Some banks may not even bother to sell," he says.

Yet the plan also carries big risks. Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, says the government ultimately will have to spend as much as $1.4 trillion buying sour mortgage assets, depending on how many foreign banks participate. Its ability to borrow all that money is not a given, he says.

Whalen predicts the bailout will set off economic upheaval. The government will have to borrow so much that it will drive up interest rates, weaken the dollar and worsen inflation.

"I think you can see interest rates in the double digits," he says. "Congress thinks they can borrow forever. The dollar is going to fall. Nobody is going to want to hold U.S. debt."

Whalen says, "I don't think we need to rescue Wall Street. Wall Street is curing itself quite nicely. If we don't allow our people to feel pain, it's not going to inoculate them" against future crises.

Some economists warn that the long-term costs to the USA will loom even larger, as the bailouts hurt future federal spending for health care, Social Security and education.

"They're just blowing the bank wide open right here," says Jagadeesh Gokhale, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "We still really don't know what the exposure may be."

The financial sector is lobbying for changes and clarifications in the plan. The Financial Services Roundtable, which represents 100 of the largest financial services companies, said Sunday that while it supports the general thrust of the proposal, it wants a mechanism to figure out what kind of assets the Treasury should buy, and at what price.

Unforeseen results

More generally, banking and financial firms say that a series of bold actions taken by Treasury in recent days could have unintended consequences on financial firms. Just Friday, for example, Treasury said it would temporarily insure the holdings of money market mutual funds up to $50 billion to firms that pay a fee to participate in the government program.

Money market mutual funds hold about $234 billion of asset-backed commercial paper. In recent days, investors have acted to get out of money market mutual funds, forcing firms to sell holdings to pay the investors. But the crisis in financial markets has made it harder for firms to sell even their high-quality holdings.

Independent mortgage consultant Howard Glaser says the bailout puts the government in an awkward, conflicted position. "The federal government is both the owner of the loan and so may want to seek maximum return by foreclosing, and they have an express interest in keeping people in their homes and trying to avoid foreclosures."

But he says, "My broad sense is there are no arrows left in the quiver for the federal government.

"They have to take action. It's not perfect, but it's the only avenue they have at this point."

Contributing: David Jackson, Edward Iwata, Kathy Kiely, Douglas Stanglin, Roger Yu, Associated PRess

(version 2) Bush presses for quick action on $700B bailout bill

2008-09-22T12:39:00.001-07:00

Updated enough for a new title...

Bush presses for quick action on $700B bailout bill
By Sue Kirchhoff, Barbara Hagenbaugh and Paul Davidson, USA TODAY